Osama!

Why are people dancing in the streets?

The assassination of Osama Bin Laden is a major historical event that many of us will remember for the rest of our lives, like 9-11 itself. As the world reacts spontaneously, and the public forms its opinion, nearly every mainstream commentator is openly rejoicing his death. Yet there are signs of dissent, a growing feeling that there is something deeper we are prohibited from saying. Here are a few people who are struggling to articulate that unsayable truth.

Chris Hedges:

"The tragedy was that if we had the courage to be vulnerable, if we had built on that empathy, we would be far safer and more secure today than we are .... Empire finally, as Thucydides understood, is a disease. As Thucydides wrote, the tyranny that the Athenian empire imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. The disease of empire, according to Thucydides, would finally kill Athenian democracy. And the disease of empire, the disease of nationalism .... I despair. I despair that we as a country, as Nietzsche understood, have become a monster that we are attempting to fight." Read More

Jeremy Scahill:

"I found it quite disgusting to see people chanting, like it was some sort of sporting event, outside of the White House. I think it was idiotic." Read More

Chris Douglas-Roberts:

A twitter war has erupted over basketball player Douglas-Roberts' skeptical comments about the assassination: "Is this a celebration? Is this the beginning of a huge religious war? It took 919,967 deaths to kill that one guy. It took 10 years and two wars to kill that guy. It cost us (USA) roughly $1,188,263,000,000 to kill that guy. But we #winning though. Haaaa. (Sarcasm)." Read More